Don’t Explain is an award-winning, deeply expressive performance project led by celebrated vocalist Jacqueline Tabor and pianist-composer Marina Albero. Inspired by the enduring influence of Billie Holiday and Nina Simone, the project blends original compositions with reimagined repertoire to create a powerful, contemporary jazz experience.

Rooted in jazz and blues, with classical influences and improvisation, Don’t Explain is intimate, soulful, and emotionally resonant. The collaboration between voice and piano anchors the music, allowing space for nuance, storytelling, and dynamic musical conversation, with select ensemble textures enhancing the performance.

This is not a tribute show, but a living dialogue with legacy music that honors the past while speaking directly to the present. May 20, 2026, marks the official album release performance of Don’t Explain at The Triple Door, offering audiences a rare opportunity to experience this project in one of Seattle’s most iconic listening rooms. Expect an evening of depth, elegance, and compelling artistry.

The Paula Boggs Band traverses jazz, bluegrass, soul, folk and Americana. This Seattle-brewed “Soulgrass” group features Paula Boggs (vocals/guitar/ukulele), David Salonen, Tor Dietrichson, Paul Matthew Moore, Jacob Evans and Darren Loucas, creating a rich, roots-driven sound rooted in harmony, storytelling and groove.

Paula Boggs is a former member of the President’s Committee on the Arts & Humanities who resigned following the Charlottesville riots. Her song “Benediction,” inspired by the Charleston church murders, premiered in Charleston with the Mother Emanuel AME Choir. Before music, Boggs served as a federal prosecutor, attorney for the White House and U.S. military, and later as Starbucks’ top lawyer and a VP at Dell.

The band’s acclaimed new album, Sumatra (2026), features collaborations with the Blind Boys of Alabama, Valerie June, Josh Neumann and James Falzone. Blending blues, gospel, folk and Americana traditions, the album explores aging, ancestry, hope, loss and resilience through mostly acoustic instrumentation.

Rainbow Rodeo called the band “an organic continuation of the music of people like Odetta and Mavis Staples,” adding, “We need more people to be making this kind of music.” Americana Highways praised Sumatra as “10 charming melodies” spanning “jazz, bluegrass, soul, folk & Americana with a rootsy soul,” while declaring, “there isn’t another [album] that gets close to [Paula Boggs Band’s] creations.” Valerie June described the closing collaboration with the Blind Boys of Alabama, “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round,” as “a perfect balm for these times.”

Marisa Anderson channels the history of the guitar and stretches the boundaries of tradition. Her deeply original work applies elements of minimalism, electronic music, drone and 20th century classical music to compositions based on blues, jazz, gospel and country music, re-imagining the landscape of American music. The New Yorker calls Anderson ‘one of the most distinctive guitar players of her generation’, while NPR refers to her as among ‘this era’s most powerful players’. Her work has been featured in Billboard, Rolling Stone, NPR, SPIN,, the BBC and The Wire. Festival appearances include Big Ears, Pitchfork Midwinter, Le Guess Who and the Copenhagen Jazz Festival.

Anderson’s discography includes five solo records and multiple collaborations. Her latest release, Lost Futures (2021), is a collaboration with guitarist William Tyler. In 2020 Anderson released The Quickening with drummer Jim White (Dirty Three, Xylouris White). Anderson is sought after as a collaborator and composer, contributing to recordings by Matmos, Tara Jane O’Neil, Beth Ditto, Sharon Van Etten and Circuit Des Yeux among others, as well as creating music for short films and soundtracks.